Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 108 • Two Sections
WHEN DEBATES CAN MATTER Generally overstated in importance, but can be vital when elections are close and candidates are relatively unknown. Both are happening this year, as the mayor’s race is close and the sheriff’s first election had seven candidates. Otherwise, debates often simply reinforces what voters already think.
Rick Mullaney JU Institute
Prepared at the beginning of his candidacy by going over 150-200 questions and answers with campaign staff. As debates drew nearer, he narrowed the focus. Took a weekend by himself and spread out legal pads across the floor, each dedicated to issue like crime, education and neighborhoods.
File photo by Fran Ruchalski
Debating the value
Mayoral candidates Lenny Curry and Bill Bishop along with incumbent Alvin Brown spoke on issues and traded a few verbal jabs during a televised debate March 12. The subject of debates has become a hot topic in recent weeks. Brown and Curry will face each other in the May 19 general election.
Impact varies depending on situation, issues
By David Chapman Staff Writer Like viewers at home, Nat Glover was more of a spectator to a contentious back-and-forth debate in 1995. Leading up to that televised debate, Glover’s two front-runner opponents were heavily financed and more widely endorsed in the Jacksonville sheriff’s race. “I think it was a general feeling that one of them would eventually be sheriff,” Glover said this week.
Like they’d done at previous forums, W.C. Brown and Joe Stelma were sniping at each other that evening as a television audience across Jacksonville watched. This time, though, Glover interrupted. Guys, he said, let’s use the energy you have going at each other in the fight against crime. That changed the race. “That was a moment many people remember today,” Glover said John Delaney is one of them, recalling
THE IMPACT ON UNDECIDED VOTERS Many voters wait to see how candidates perform in debates before making their decisions. Debates allow viewers to compare and they show how candidates respond to each other when answering — and not answering — questions. Responses offer longer, unfiltered opportunities not usually found in soundbites.
Public
Karen Feagins WJCT executive
legal notices begin on page
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Glover’s performance as a statesman on stage as dominant. The momentum, he said, helped Glover win the election in the first election — no runoff needed. “It was absolutely stunning,” Delaney said recently. It was a candidate seizing a televised debate as an opportunity and running with it. Twenty years later, debates still matter. Just how much, though, depends on who you ask. Debate... Continued on Page A-4
HOW DEBATE HELPED HIM WIN
Nat Glover Former sheriff
Seized the chance during his 1995 televised debate with two front runners in race for sheriff. While his two opponents sniped at each other, Glover focused strictly on the crime problem and it resonated — he won the race during first election against the two who were more heavily financed and endorsed.
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Downtown boarding house may be saved
HOW HE PREPARED FOR THEM
John Delaney Former mayor
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Meeks interested in buying Elena Flats
By David Chapman Staff Writer Jack Meeks said he’s tired of seeing historic buildings being torn down. So, when he found out recently about a former Downtown boarding house potentially being next in line for demolition, he asked for the process to slow down a bit. The Downtown Investment Authority felt the same way and reached out to City Council to hold off on a landmark designation bill committees in past weeks had voted down. Council complied Tuesday, putting the issue back to committees and at least delaying the possibility the Elena Flats building at 122 E. Duval St. could be torn down. The owner of the building has applied to Meeks the city for a demolition permit, but the Historic Preservation Commission denied it. At the council level, though, the Land Use and Zoning Committee voted down the landmark designation, opening up the possibility of the building being torn down should it have passed Tuesday. Meeks, a DIA board member, wants to talk to the owner first to see about purchasing the building. If that happens, he said he and his wife would return it to its original Council... Continued
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Cyberthreats leave no one ‘untouched’
By Mark Basch Contributing Writer
As the CEO of a company that helps small and medium-sized businesses develop their websites, David Brown knows all too well the threat companies face from hackers accessing their systems. “Cybersecurity is a serious, serious threat, far more serious than many of us understand,” Brown said Tuesday at a World Affairs Council of Jacksonville luncheon at the Downtown River Club. “A few years ago we didn’t worry about cybersecurity,” said Brown, chairman, CEO and president of Jacksonville-based Web.com Group Inc. It seemed like the main threat was to big targets like banks and government websites, but that has changed, he said. “I would guess there are very few companies that haven’t had a visit from some sort of cyberthreat,” he said. The old image of websites hacked by young technology geeks for the fun of it is gone, Brown said. Now it’s coming from professionals. Hacking... Continued on Page A-3
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